May gambles on unpopular Corbyn to win her an early election

Theresa May announcing on Tuesday that she wants to hold a snap general election on 8 June.
Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Theresa May’s professed reason for calling an election – to deliver Brexit as “the will of the people” and to strengthen her negotiating position with the EU (though she has yet to explain how an increased parliamentary majority is likely to make any difference to the remaining 27 members) – is a deeply cynical move not only to increase her majority (Reports, theguardian.com, 18 April), but also because of the fact that while the election will, ostensibly, be about Brexit, in reality it will be the usual choice between parties and their leaders.

The reason for calling the election appears even more disingenuous when one realises that the majority of May’s own MPs who are opposed to Brexit have only one possible means of using the election to oppose it – or even to soften it – namely by treating it as a vote of confidence, or even a leadership challenge, a prospect that seems extremely remote.

What seems certain, is that Labour faces potential decimation. Even if its losses are moderate, it seems certain Jeremy Corbyn will return to the backbenches by the end of the summer.Martin AllenShoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex

• The Tories go into the election with a poor record to defend – undertakings abandoned, U-turns abundant, barely concealed dissent on the backbenches – and with the opposition of the other parties coming from quite different directions simultaneously; there’ll be no “I agree with Nick” this time. The election will be fought on the old boundaries, not those the Tories planned to fix for 2020, and Labour has an unusual proportion of (so-called) safe seats, making progress for the Tories more difficult than usual. Labour has just put out a sheaf of policies that are palpably popular. Seven weeks in politics is a very long time. If Labour MPs can bring themselves to pull together – the biggest ask of all – there’s everything to play for.W Stephen GilbertCorsham, Wiltshire

• Corbyn must have taken leave of his senses to pave the way for an election that the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act gives the opposition the right to prevent. It is a macho and suicidal gesture, which the PLP should overrule and which Labour MPs should oppose in the division lobbies on Wednesday night.Dick Leonard(Former Labour MP), London

• Surely this is the time for Labour, Lib Dems, Greens, and Scottish Nationalists to big up and bite the bullet of a one-off electoral pact in which they select the candidate, on a seat-by-seat basis, that is most likely to defeat the Tories. They have enough in common on various social agendas, and should couple this stance with a promise of PR for all future elections. Sure there are problems, but compared with another five years from an emboldened, hard-Brexiting, NHS-dismantling, education-fracturing, environment-ignoring (etc) Tory government, these problems are mere side issues. David RobsonLeeds

• The prime minister had barely begun her announcement before she found it necessary to bring up the matter of the leader of the opposition as if he figured significantly in her thinking. So can we now assume that the government’s case will be all about Jeremy, or will there be some mention of the matter of exiting the European Union? Let’s remember that the consequences of Brexit will be with us for many years to come, but party leaders are easily disposed of.Hilda HaydenMalvern, Worcestershire

• The June election must not be centred on Brexit. Labour must ensure that domestic issues hog the headlines, since the Brexit process will take at least two years by which time the country will be completely transformed. The NHS will be run by private companies, education run for profit, multinationals and millionaires will be paying even less tax than they do now, taxpayers spending even more on bailing out private rail companies and the country will be saturated with fracking. The rightwing press will have you believe that Brexit is the be all and end all, but the serious problems created by the Tories, which have divided the country, must be tackled now as a matter of urgency. Theresa May has given Labour a wonderful opportunity to set the agenda. Dave ShonfieldLondon

• I welcome the Tories’ decision to go for an election on 8 June. It will ensure five or 10 more years of Tory rule at Westminster, destroy the Labour party and lead to the end of Jeremy Corbyn, but it will lead to Scottish independence within five years. I hope that all the parties to the left of Labour and the SNP in Scotland, including the Greens, will treat this as a referendum on independence and don’t stand candidates against the SNP. If the SNP get more than 50% of the vote, that is a vote for independence. Indeed the UN would recognise this as a clear constitutional vote for independence and most countries in the UN didn’t need a referendum to gain their independence.

Of course Nicola Sturgeon may still choose to hold a referendum on independence in the next few years and, faced with the prospect of endless Tory governments in Westminster, the people of Scotland will, I have no doubt, choose independence. Hugh Kerr Edinburgh

• The risks of a Labour meltdown are obvious, but there are risks for the Tories too. In Scotland, the SNP looks set to hold on to most of its gains. The Tories’ 2015 gains from the Lib Dems could be vulnerable to a revived anti-Brexit party led by Tim Farron and most Labour MPs also sit on solid majorities. In 2015 the Tories gained a small majority with a seven-point lead over Labour. If the lead is say, nine points, the electoral arithmetic may be similar, resulting in an emboldened Jeremy Corbyn and an equally embattled Theresa May heading into Brexit negotiations. Steve FlatleyYork

• A woman who always keeps her promises has called an election she promised not to, in order to obtain a mandate she says she already has, for a policy she said was a bad idea. David RobjantCople, Bedfordshire

• The government has a slim majority. Some 20 Tory MPs are threatened with a byelection if found guilty of cheating with their election expenses. The files have gone to the CPS. If the election goes ahead, there would be no need for those silly threatened byelections to take place.Mike ShellensHuntingdon, Cambridgeshire

• A June election may prove to be the last chance in many a lifetime for all non-Tories to stop the Conservative party remaining in power for ever. Please will all the other parties – except those whose work is done – form a grand coalition united around a policy of electoral reform, with a commitment to cooperate in every constituency for the end of first past the post and the introduction of proportional representation? God bless us all!Fr Alec MitchellDenton, Manchester

• Is it called a snap election because we’ll get something identical?Alasdair McKeeLancaster